


The end of the line

by GreenPhoenix



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: #ItsStillBeautiful, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 05:30:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7702519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenPhoenix/pseuds/GreenPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal and Will survived, and now Will has to make a choice about their future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The end of the line

”You know you will kill him eventually. If not now, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then later. But you will,” says Bedelia in the sad autumnal light.  
“Perhaps,” says Will and sighs.  
“He will consume you in return. Not your physical body, but your soul. He will gobble it up greedily until there’s nothing left that isn’t his. You are already like twins.”  
“I guess so.”  
“You have a wife and son. It’s not too late to go back to them.”  
“It’s too late,” says Will.  
“Then get out. Save yourself. I got out.”  
“Did you? Truly?”  
“I’m free now.”  
“You’ve spun a fortune from your life with him. You crawled up his bowels and he got you out with an enema.“  
“I did what I had to do to survive. You’re looking to get yourself devoured.”  
“That’s okay,” says Will. “Now I’ll go to see him.”  
“He’ll see you. He’ll always have time for you,” says Bedelia.  
Will leaves her to her thoughts, to her gilded cage, built with the cannibal’s gold.

 

*  
Will goes to see Hannibal at the Baltimore State Hospital For The Criminally Insane, where he’s been since they fled over the cliff.  
Will himself was dragged out of the water by Chiyoh, then captured at the hospital. Hannibal was captured there as well.  
Will got off on self-defense thanks to an expensive lawyer bought by Hannibal.  
He’s alive, and his heart is in chains.

*  
Hannibal is pale and drawn in Alana’s care.  
“Will,” he says.  
“I saw your wife,” says Will.  
“I have no wife. I have a husband and I’m looking at him.”  
“Ever the romantic.”  
“Did you get my letter?”  
“Yes. And I do, too.”  
“How is your wife?”  
“We’re getting a divorce. It’s for the best.”  
“I will get out of here, and I’ll come for you.” It’s half warning, half promise.  
“I tried to kill us.”  
“I forgive you.”  
“You always do. Even when I try to kill you.”  
“Lovers forgive each other.”  
“I forgave you.”  
“I told you, I won’t let go. Never.”  
Will lifts his hand and touches the imprint of Hannibal’s face on the glass.  
“Would you come with me now?” Hannibal asks.  
“Yes.”  
“Good.”  
“Bedelia told me I would kill you eventually and that you would devour me.”  
“I have more faith in us.”  
“Good. “  
“My love. If you forgive me all shall be well.”  
“I won’t drop my forgiveness again,” Will vows.

*  
Their tangled web won’t unfurl and they will find each other.  
Will dreams of Hannibal’s lips on his, of breath and blood animating him, changing him.  
Bedelia was right, but even so he can’t let go.  
His soul is all Hannibal now, antlers curling over his ears.

*  
“I don’t know why you persist in seeing him,” says Alana, sipping at her wine in her office.  
“I need to see him,” Will says.  
“He will only hurt you again. It’s what he does.”  
“He can’t touch me through the glass.”  
“Will, you know as well as I do that this words can scar.”  
“True. I shall risk it.”  
“That’s what worries me. You need to try and sever your bond.”  
“No.”  
“He is the devil.”  
The devil can love Will knows it too well.

*  
“I’ve thought of you,” says Hannibal.  
“I got all your letters.”  
“The time is soon.”  
“Will you take me with you?”  
“Of course. “  
“I’ve left you a copy of Dante’s “Inferno”.”  
“It will be a better read than Chilton’s new book.”  
“Most things are,” says Will.  
“Have you seen Bedelia again?”  
“No. She will only tell me to leave you.”  
“She would,” says Hannibal.  
“I miss you. I never thought I would but here I am.”  
“I’m glad. Be patient.”  
“Soon, then.”  
“You are in all my rooms.”  
“Victorious?”  
“Yes. A mere shade of your earthly magnificence,” he says with a forlorn expression on his face.  
“I would have liked to explore our relationship in a more amorous way.”  
“I shall write you a letter for now.”  
“I anticipate it.”  
“You blush so prettily.”  
“You say such foolish things,” says Will.  
The ripper is in love, and it’s written all over his face.  
A face that’s usually as unchanging as a granite statue has now shown cracks to let out some humanity.

*  
Will gets the letter and blushes anew.  
He hopes no FBI agent has read it. Jack would be livid if he saw those words.  
“My love.  
I would kiss your lips, and then bite your supple neck, marking you as my own.  
I would make love to you, making your body sing with pleasure.  
I’d get you so open for me, and then as you sigh push my large member inside your heat, making you moan my name in defeat.  
(you remain victorious even then for I am your devoted slave)  
You move under me like a sylph, flowers adorning your pretty head.  
We’d last all night, and then start anew with dawn’s fresh light.  
I wish I were with you for real. But I will walk with you through your dreams.  
H”

*  
Will learns of the breakout on the radio, early one morning, as he feds his dogs.  
They say he killed two guards, and that Alana left the country.  
He gets a letter a few days later.  
“Will.  
I can’t be with you yet.  
I love you.  
H.”  
Will sighs and pours himself a whiskey. Forgiveness doesn’t come easy if one person is out of the country. 

*  
Time passes and Will lives.  
He no longer works for the FBI, but fixes boats.  
His life is empty.  
He has a brief affair with a woman, which ends when she finds out that he was with the ripper.  
She leaves him, and he doesn’t recall her name.

*  
Will gives up his life in Wolf Trap.  
He finds new homes for his dogs.  
He learns that Jack is working with his student Clarice on the Buffalo Bill case.  
He turns down the tempting offer to help out. The dead haunt his dreams enough as it is, and he’s going to find the worst killer he’s ever known.  
To marry him.  
It’s possible he’s taken leave of his senses entirely.

*  
In France he finds a painting by a local artist called mr Autumn.  
Will goes to his house and hopes he’s right. He waits for several hours, until the light starts to dim outside and is replaced by dark. He spends the time reading Tattle Crime on his phone; apparently Clarice caught Buffalo Bill by consulting with Bedelia du Maurier. The interview with the victorious Clarice implies that she’s sleeping with Bedelia. It also speculates that the murder husbands are together again, Will hopes so.  
Eventually mr Autumn comes home.  
It’s him, and he’s beautiful.  
“Hannibal,” says Will.  
“Will. I knew you’d find me,” Hannibal says, eyes slowly betraying the depth of his emotions.  
“Why didn’t you call me?” he asks.  
“I was trying to leave you alone. I was trying to spare you a life on the run.”  
“I don’t want that. I never did.”  
“I know. Come in,” says Hannibal and Will all but pounces on him, twining arms and legs all around him.  
Hannibal kisses him at last, and it feels right.  
Will’s soul is his to give to the very devil if he so desires.


End file.
